


The Unintended Effects of Time Travel

by csichick_2



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/pseuds/csichick_2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry knew changing the past would change the present, but he wasn't expecting this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unintended Effects of Time Travel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mimm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimm/gifts).



> Technically this isn't canon divergent yet, but I think it's safe to say that this isn't where season 3 is going to be going.

Barry knew that changing his past would change his present, and it did, but not entirely in the ways he expected. He knew that with both his parents alive, there would really be no reason for him to be living with Joe, so the first thing he does is check the address on his driver’s license. He wasn’t surprised that he recognized it, but the reason why did come as a shock. It wasn’t his childhood home, the shitty apartment he lived in for a few years, or even Joe’s, but rather the apartment Iris and Eddie shared before he sacrificed himself to save them all. And that makes him slightly afraid of what he’s going to find when he gets there.

After a quick test tells him he still has his speed – something for which he’s both grateful for and surprised by – he races back to the apartment, praying he finds it empty so he can snoop around and try to figure out the realities of his new life. Unfortunately, he can’t be that lucky.

“Barry Allen is on time for dinner for the first time ever,” comes a voice from the kitchen. “It’s a damn miracle.”

Barry can’t help the shocked look on his face as he struggles to come up with something to say. Because not only had Eddie not died in this timeline, he and Barry were apparently living together. And unless changing the timeline changed the layout of the apartment, it only has one bedroom.

“I know I promised that I wouldn’t say anything about how you’re literally always late, but technically I didn’t so stop looking at me like that,” Eddie replies as he crosses the apartment to kiss Barry hello.

Despite the complete weirdness of this situation for Barry, kissing Eddie feels completely natural to him. “Sorry, it’s been a weird day,” he replies. “Please tell me yours was more normal.”

“Depends on what you call finding your mother filling our freezer with her cooking when I got home from my interview,” Eddie replies. “Though it does mean that we’re not having take-out for once.”

“How was your interview?” Barry asks him, hoping both that he hadn’t already asked the question as far as Eddie was concerned and that it would help Barry figure out some more thing about this new timeline he created.

He’s still left with more questions than he’d like, but the most important things are answered – Barry is still a CSI, Eddie was Joe’s partner until he got shot during a bust, Eddie is now a retired police detective looking for a safer job that still lets him use his skills, and thanks to Eddie assuming he’d forget, he also knows that the two of them have been dating for two years, and living together for one. However, Barry still has no idea how he received his powers in this new reality, though he’s hoping his relationship with Eddie makes it so that Eobard Thawne is never born in the future.

Even though everything about this life with Eddie comes to him naturally – and he isn’t sure if that’s related to the paradox or simply because he had a bit of a crush on Eddie in the old timeline – Barry is glad that Eddie doesn’t try to imitate anything of a sexual nature because that is something he is very much not ready for.

Barry manages to navigate this new reality with little incident for nearly two weeks before it all nearly comes crashing down. While he and Eddie have been plenty tactile, they haven’t gone any further than making out, which finally made the other man suspicious.

“What’s going on with you, Barry?” he asks as they’re making out in bed one morning.

“What? Nothing?” Barry says, quickly. Probably too quickly.

“We haven’t had sex in two weeks when normally you jump me as soon as we get in bed,” Eddie replies. “It’s not nothing.”

“It’s just things have been kind of weird at work lately,” Barry replies, which isn’t entirely untrue, given the changes between realities. “I shouldn’t have brought it home with me.”

“Police work? Or The Flash work?” Eddie asks. “Because while I can’t do anything about the first, I might be able to help with the latter. And now you’re looking at me like I have two heads, so what’s really going on?”

Barry swears silently as it hadn’t occurred to him that Eddie would know he’s The Flash and clearly his surprise at that fact was showing. “It’s a really long story and you probably won’t believe me.”

“There’s a lot I’ll believe that I wouldn’t have before meeting you,” Eddie says softly.

Barry takes a deep breath and tells Eddie everything – the time travel, changing the timeline by saving his mother, and everything from his original timeline that he undid. “And this is where you either kick me because I’m not your Barry or have me committed to a mental hospital.”

But Eddie does neither of those things and instead leans forward and kisses Barry softly. “Thank you for trusting me with the truth.”

“You’re not mad?” Barry asks confused.

“In that timeline I was dead,” Eddie replies. “I’m not about to get upset about being alive. And I’m going to kick you out, but I’ll understand if you want to leave.”

“Because we weren’t together in the other timeline?” Barry asks.

“Well yeah,” Eddie replies. “Had you ever even kissed a guy before you changed everything?”

“Kissing, yes,” Barry replies. “Beyond kissing, not so much.”

“Oh I figured that part out,” Eddie says. “We’ll take everything at whatever pace you’re comfortable with. If you actually want this.”

“If I actually want this? If I didn’t want this, I’d have figured out a way to get out of it two weeks ago,” Barry responds. “In that other timeline, I’d be jealous of you for being with Iris one day and jealous of Iris for being with you the next. Trust me, the attraction is there.”

“Oh thank god,” Eddie breathes out. “Are you going to tell anyone else about the whole time travel changing the past thing?”

“Not if I don’t have to,” Barry replies. “There are too many ways in which that could go horribly wrong.”

“Then we’re going to have to sit down and compare notes so I can make sure you know everything that’s different,” Eddie replies. “And I’ll do my best to not be rude to the ex-girlfriends you never actually dated in this timeline.”

Barry laughs. “I won’t hold it against you if you are.”

He knows that it will take a long time before everything in the new normal he created by changing the past actually feels, well, normal, but Barry knows that with Eddie knowing the truth, somehow everything will turn out okay.


End file.
